Support The Wards

Emily and Jim’s Story

It has been a long journey to get here but now is a time for hope, strength and celebration.

Having a family has always been our dream. After 4 years of working with fertility clinics with no success (including three failed IUI attempts and a devastating diagnosis), we decided to pursue different paths to have a family; traditional adoption and embryo adoption – the latter being the path that we chose. We had our first transfer this summer and on Emily’s 40th birthday, we received the greatest news; our adopted embryo transfer was successful. Emily was pregnant!

At our 20-week anatomy scan, we were told we were having a boy. The next day, we were told that there were significant abnormalities with the baby's heart. We were broken. After many weeks of waiting and testing with McMaster Children's Hospital and Sicks Kids Children's Hospital, it was confirmed that our son has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome - a very rare and severe congenital heart disease, the cause of which is unknown. Our son will require open-heart surgery at birth, at around 6 months old and around 3 years old. Not knowing how this would play out, we decided to name him early. Our son's name is Owen James Ward. We chose this name because Owen means ‘young warrior’, and we need him to be a fighter.

We will most likely need to relocate to Toronto for the birth, open-heart surgeries and recovery. Once Owen is discharged from Sick Kids following his first open-heart surgery, he will require close monitoring and weekly doctor's appointments at Sick Kids until the second open-heart surgery. Our big goal is to have Owen home for next Christmas in Guelph.

Due to our unique situation, in lieu of physical gifts for our baby shower, this GoFundMe was created to help with the additional costs of travel, relocating, hospital parking, medical equipment rentals etc. Please do not feel any pressure to donate. This is just an option for people who would like to. 

We are excited to gather to celebrate, cry, laugh and create the strength we will need for this next part of our journey. Your love will help us every step of the way.

Owen, you have been loved for many years. We've been waiting for you and we can't wait to meet you ♡